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About Michael J. Miller

Miller, who was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine from 1991 to 2005, authors this blog for PC Magazine to share his thoughts on PC-related products. No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are disclaimed. Miller works separately for a private investment firm which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made.

Want to be a CIO in 2011?

Do you want to be a Chief Information Officer in 2011? At a panel at the Fairfield/Westchester Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM)'s conference on the Transformational CIO yesterday, four top recruiters talked about what companies look for when hiring senior IT managers.
Shawn Banerji of Russell Reynolds Associates defined a "transformational CIO" as an agent of change; someone that can take an organization through some fundamental business transformation, such as moving a print publishing business to a digital world.

Mark Polansky of Korn/Ferry International agreed that being transformational meant bringing something new and different, but said this was true in both internal -- such as improving the supply chain -- and external -- such a customer-facing services or creating products -- contents.

Meanwhile, Phil Schneidermeyer of Heidrick & Struggles said the issues companies were looking for include aligning the IT organization with the business, as well as with technical skills. Beverly Lieberman of Halbrecht Lieberman Associates said that she was seeing the need for international or global experience. She said even smaller companies were now outsourcing or partnering with companies in other countries. Lieberman said people in demand may have lived abroad and have a different point of view.

She said she was seeing the biggest uptick in project management and director levels, especially for people with project management skills or with security and networking skills. At the CIO level, Lieberman said demand is stronger than it was a year ago, but that employers want to see more candidates than before, and hiring is taking longer. "It doesn't feel like the recession is over," she said.

On the other hand, Polansky said his firm had seen a recovery from the last couple of years, but it's still not back to 2007 levels. What's hot now includes industrial, health care, and financial services and life sciences sectors, but not consumer.

Banerji said those kinds of organizations, as well as those that are at strategic inflection points -- including not-for profits -- are most likely to be looking for new technology talent. Schneidermeyer said the turnaround began a year ago, and that he was seeing a lot of push on the security side. Shawn said there must be confidence in some companies to lead the hiring.

Asked what they advised CIOs, Banerji said 50 percent of CIOs he knew were unhappy. Perhaps they are frustrated because they're unable to contribute the way they would like to, they're dealing with big projects, or they're not given the resources they feel they need. As a result, he expects a lot of turnover in the next few years.

Schneidermeyer said there hasn't been a lot of movement in the last few years, so he sees some "pent-up" demands, but said it wouldn't go back to the late-90s era of lots of job movement.

Polansky said he thought changing jobs in a bad economy is a good move, because the companies that hire in a bad economy are those that are investing in their companies and their people.

Some companies have a commitment to succession planning, Banerji notes, but most do not have a succession plan and want to go outside. Schneidermeyer said that in a number of companies he's seeing, the CIO has lost the confidence of the CEO and senior management, and that's why they are looking outside.

Polansky said companies can always buy the technology. Rather, he said, it's the ideas and leadership that are most important, and which is what CIOs need to bring to the table.

Asked what career advice they would give to aspiring CIOs, Schneidermeyer said it was important to keep developing relationships across the organization. And Banerji said it was important to be a great listener and a student of your organization, its governance and operation. "Don't be closed minded," he said.

Lieberman said they should think bigger and more broadly from a geographic perspective, and consider relocating, since half of the time she is asking about jobs that require moving.

Polansky said it came down to the usual advice: focus on people; build teams, not systems; build credibility; and deliver what you promised.

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